Sexual Rights of Transgenders in Japan

In 1995, a group of Japanese medical professionals raised the issue of whether sex reassignment surgery (SRS) could officially be considered an ethical medical procedure. In the ten years since then, the situation surrounding trans-people in Japan has changed dramatically. In particular, the Japanese version of Standards of Care was established in 1997 and led to the first publicly announced SRS being performed in 1998.

Also, a new law allowing transsexuals who meet certain criteria to change the gender on their "koseki" (family registration) was enacted in 2004. All of these major changes were assumed to represent a humanistic point of view and be important steps forward for trans-people in Japan. Yet, there has been an underlying emphasis on transgenders as people with a disorder who deserve compassion for their condition.

In this presentation, the developments over the past ten years will be reviewed with a focus on several issues that have been raised by the trans-communities and must be addressed in order to eliminate the discrepancies between the intentions of the medicalization of Gender Identity Disorder and the reality experienced by trans-people.

Media

Prof. Yuko Higashi

Dr Higashi M.A., M.S.W., Ph.D., is Professor at the Osaka Prefecture University, Osaka, Japan.Yuko Higashi is a professor at Osaka Prefecture University, teaching Social Work and Sexual Health/Rights. She’s the cochair of Sexual Rights Committee of World Association for Sexual Health (WAS). She is involved in activities centered on the most affected key populations in the field of HIV/AIDS.